Small figurine of an infant in a bathtub molded in unglazed white earthenware.

History

In 1891, ceramic artist Pauline Jacobus recruited Thorwald P. A. Samson and Louis Ipson, professional potters at the Hjords Pottery in Denmark, to work for the Pauline Pottery of Edgerton, Wisconsin. Within a year of their arrival in Edgerton, Samson and Ipson established their own pottery company, the American Art Clay Works, to produce busts and figurines made from local earthenware clay. Edgerton attorney Louis H. Towne purchased the pottery in 1895, renaming it Edgerton Art Clay Works. Samson and Ipson stayed on as designers along with Samson's brother Hans and noted sculptors Helen Farnsworth Mears and Jean Pond Miner. Ipson returned to Denmark in 1896 and Samson did the same in 1899, bringing the company to a close. When the potters returned to Edgerton in 1902 they reopened the Art Clay Works, but soon developed an entirely new line of ceramics--the Norse Pottery.

Sources

Maurice Montgomery, Edgerton's History in Clay: Pauline Pottery to Pickard China (2001); Ori-Anne Pagel, Pauline Pottery: A Pictorial Supplement to 'Edgerton's History in Clay' (Edgerton, Wisconsin: Arts Council of Edgerton, 2003). For more on Edgerton art pottery, see Emily Pfotenhauer, "Art Pottery in Edgerton: History and Resources" Wisconsin Object (accessed March 5, 2008): http://wisconsinobject.wordpress.com/2008/03/05/art-pottery-in-edgerton-history-and-resources